What is time?

I was thinking the other day that we all measure time by the distance around a center axis. Our earth time is measured by the length of days to orbit the sun as our axis. Our solar system rotates around an axis as do other galaxies. So my thought was how does time get measured at the central point of the measured axis? What is time in the very center of any axis? Can it be measured? Just thinking.

Aug 8 2011:
Brian, you just thought of a very important theme, the circle. The center of the universe (metaphorically) is every where. And so lets take one center... you, you are at the top of the mountain looking at everything but what does the center of a world of movement do, it doesn't move. This center is the point where eternity and movement are connected.

Aug 18 2011:
todd, metaphors like the circle are a translation of the self. We measure things by observation so naturally there are limitations. When the time comes to put the abstraction into reality you draw a new figure, a symbol.In the same sense, there are no numbers. There are only symbols of numbers, but we still work with them as if they were numbers. My definition above does not derive it's full meaning in a physical sense but more of a metaphorical sense. Your thoughts?

Jul 28 2011:
Time is just our perception of how entropy unfolds in our universe. As the entropy gets higher, which it always does, time unfolds within our minds. You could almost say time is just a figment of our imagination. However, how do you interpret this famous theory:

If there is no one to see the moon, no instrument, person, or animal, then does it exist? If yes, prove it.

Jul 30 2011:
Hey if a tree falls on the forest and no one hears it it still falls because we see it laying on the ground. I do not thing many trees grow horizontally on the ground but I could be wrong!!!

Aug 17 2011:
I stumbled across a couple of articles you might find of interest, one of wich seems to contradict the verse i quoted earlier.-All things connetected are that thou canst not stir a flower without troubling of a star.- the AUG.,2011 edition ofscientific american on page 83 the author refers to symetry and locality. I wonder what Borrahs thoughts are on locality if he believes a photon can cross an infinite distance in finite amount of time?Also Brian an article in the AUG.13th,2011 edition of science news on page 12 "a cloak in time" . And you might look at Set. 2011 sky & telescope on page 47 is a neat wave form pattern wich is the orbits of the moons of jupiter their axis center is the orbit of jupiter around the sun and a frequency wave pattern is also what you could observe about the vibration of lets say quartz when you apply stimuli maybe some free electrons. in sky & telescope you will find references to universal time UT. have you researched coordinated universal time.? what about the reward offered for a reliable marine clock , back when sailors worried about falling off the edge?

Aug 17 2011:
Time is the progression of the fourth dimension. We measure this in units. The space between any two units of time is an infinity unto itself.

This will blow your mind. The smallest unit of time varies depending upon where you choose to measure it. This is because the passage of time is the equivalent of a zero-dimensional entity (a photon) crossing one dimension of space. (One Planck unit) Gravitational wells (such as the gravity of a planet... etc.) stretch space causing it to take a little longer for zero-dimensional objects to cross a single dimension of space. In other words, time slows down. This is why you age slower on Earth than you would in space.

The intimate mechanics of how the forth dimension (time) progresses are outside of my field of knowledge. I have no idea exactly "how" a photon moves. If this knowledge exist maybe someone could shed a little light on it? How does a photon cross an infinite amount of space to reach the next one-dimensional point?

Aug 17 2011:
Hello Borrah. You made me smile with your closing sentence. But your definition is profound. Thanks for sharing with me your thoughts and ideas. I believe it is the sharing of thoughts that help us all grow intellectually.

Aug 15 2011:
sorry it has been so long icant recall the title of that particular book. might i suggest you try another route ? I have found that a good question is more profitable than a tousand answers. Rather than attempting to understand time endeavor to more carefully observe nature more closely biology chemistry physics astronomy astrophysics remember that all things connected are that thou canst not stir a flower without troubling of a star..O.K.? Also look up Buckminster Fuller, i believe thats the correct spelling, he developed the geodesic dome and carbon 60 is named after him bucky balls and then look up the fellow who came up with fractal geometry that is very powerful . then study absolute zero you will find something called a bose einstien constant, recently a lab passed a laser through a substance at very near zero degrees and it was slowed significantly o.k.? now look at relativity and the speed of light study these things taking notes and remember this man created the inch and man created the minute if an inch no longer is an inch then what is it and the minute? Ask your own questions brian i am on the fringe i believe the speed of light is like the sound barrier no barrier at all. Get back with me man

Aug 15 2011:
Thanks Todd. These are some very deep subjects and I have been reading more and more along these lines. I am also wondering is Einstein's understanding of the speed of light, really a correct formula or is the speed of light like you stated, No Barrier at All? It seems to me that the more we study the more we do not understand. One question leads to another and another, etc. With the speed of technology, we are able to see farther than before, look smaller than before and it just puzzles my mind, if Time is a measurement, How big is big and how small is small??????? It seems to me to be an infinite distance either direction you start looking at. Thanks for the insite. Many more thoughts to consider.

Aug 11 2011:
issac assimov postulated the big bang happens perhaps billions of times a second each bang with a degree of difference we percieve and attempt to measure as the forward progression of time. I assume he also was just thinking.

Aug 11 2011:
Hello Todd. I have read many of Issac Assimov Science Fiction, but none of his other books. Do you happen to know what book this came from? I would be interested in reading more to help me understand or try to understand what Time Is? If you could share with me, I would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jul 31 2011:
Before I started study at the institute, which studies the time, for me it was just time interval on the clock. I could not imagine that the time may be living substance - it can be felt, especially in humans. that you can feel the acceleration time, deceleration time in yourself, in other. And it turns out he lives inside the brain. I record the passing time by the brain. By all devices, we measure only the time intervals rather than time itself, and by the brain we can feel it itself. It is like intuition, or the feeling that you are in an accelerated space, where events are going fast, or you find yourself in a padded, totally retarded action, where time passes very slowly. Very interesting thing!!!

Jul 31 2011:
people measured time by day, night then invented clocks, then we measure time by second, milisecond, femtoseconds.....etc

we use smaller unit as the speed become higher so we didn't use the axis of galaxy to measure time use a smaller system and the more the speed is higer the more the system become smaller
I think we will depend on the axis of the nucleus
just imagination :)

Jul 30 2011:
Time and space are not "conditions" in which we live but modes by which we reason. We have chosen to label distance travelled in some dimension outside of/ or entwined in x,y,z Time. Based on some assumptions at atomic levels.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second

Jul 30 2011:
Time to me is either the passing of the cycles of nature (ie day /night, seasons etc.) or a way of coordinating activities so we get together with others to share life experiences or get tasks done so we can do other tasks and live life. Sounds hokey I know but I cannot go to the store and buy a bottle of time, a box of century, or a pound of decade. It is much like when we would send some one to buy twenty feet of firing line, or two gallons of prop wash from airplane blades. A construct if you will to make the universe more useful

Aug 11 2011:
wow.I am reading a wide variety of ideas about the nature of time and i am shocked no one has yet to mention the speed of light. speed of course refering to a certain distance traveled in a particular time. right?LOL O.K. I almost forgot the study on absolute zero and the bose-einstien effect

Aug 21 2011:
My challenge to produce a circle i assure you was in good faith, i must often gaurd against my impulse to be a bit colorful in my attempts to convey a thought.., If in his quest to better understand time, Brian were to focus, primarily, on the orbital path of a body, such as our earth, about a central axis, he may be severly limiting his possibilities for discovery , and, that he might look at the works of Buckmenster Fuller who developed the geodesic dome for the 1932 worlds fair and who after bucky balls the fullerine carbon 60 was named..It was my thought that i might observe a dramatic shift in brians thought process were he to investigate some varied aproaches to this topic. Certainly, if the circle were of central importance to his aproach he should attempt a solid understanding of the circle. for instance, the number pie ,wich trails off into infinity curiously enough, allows for our concept of a smooth flowig circle, it can also be said that our concept of time also allows for this illusion of a smooth flowing circle. Have a nice day. I remain teachable, the realization of ignorance is the beginning of knowledge.

Aug 17 2011:
Hello Todd,
Thanks for the information. I will look into this and do some more looking into what others have said. It is a very open topic, and brings many things to the table to consider. Thanks for sharing with me the knowledge that you have collected to allow me to grow. Somehow, we are all in this together. Thanks.

Jul 30 2011:
Time is a product of our ego. Our ego is false. Time is false. It is not linear, it is a circle, always repeating, always recurring. When we destroy the ego we experience what is not of time.

Jul 28 2011:
But then the question begins, How BIG is BIG and how small is small. At what point of the center of the axis will there be no movement? No distance traveled like on the outside of a circle. What is in the very center of an axis that is used to measure time? Other Galaxies? Other Dimensions? Just wondering.